Screened at the 2018 Philadelphia Film Festival.

This French film had originally been called Double Lives upon its release in Europe. They may have been slightly over-estimating themselves, because a lot of these characters felt a little lifeless. (See what I did there?)

Not that Non-Fiction is a bad film. It’s often rather funny in its own quiet way. It’s just a rather stuffy look at beautiful, well-off, middle-aged Parisian intellectuals from the publishing world juggling partners while they mourn the death of print – and try to find their own relevancy in a new digital world.

It feels like a Gallic Woody Allen movie, but from his later talky, angsty period, not the early laugh-out-loud ones. Therefore, even though the film has a bit of a sense of humor about itself and an occasional wink of meta cheekiness – an aside where the character played by Juliette Binoche has to participate in the brief mocking of the real actress Juliette Binoche is amusing – in the end the movie comes off as a little dry and sometimes boring.

Yet, this smart satire does bring up some very intriguing and timely issues and handles them thoughtfully. A debate between the permanence of literature versus the convenience of cyber and tablets is particularly poignant, as a group of people who have made their lives and reputations in the promotion of the printed word have to come to terms with a world in which expediency is coming to replace the tactile experiences.

Guillaume Canet is Alain, a well-respected book publisher who is toying with the idea of switching his imprint to digital – a cost-saving idea which still goes against most of what he has always held dear. His biggest critic in this idea is Léonard (Vincent Macaigne), a slightly cheesy novelist whose books are just very lightly disguised variations of his own romantic affairs.

The newest of these affairs is with Selena (Binoche), Alain’s wife and a minor celebrity as the star of a popular CSI-type crime series. Léonard’s girlfriend Valerie (the major film debut of French comedienne Nora Hamzawi) suspects the affair, but she is busy as assistant to a government official.

And finally, there is Laure (Christa Théret), the hot young millennial in Alain’s office who tempts him with both her tech savvy and her fresh beauty.

Non-Fiction asks some very important questions about modern technology and a world that is moving faster than some people feel comfortable with. The problem is, sometimes it asks those questions over and over; in heated conversations and pillow talk and intellectual jousting and breezy asides. The movie offers some fascinating insights and some very witty banter, but it is just a bit too fond of gazing at its own navel to completely recommend.

Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©2018 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: October 29, 2018.

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Copyright ©2018 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: October 29, 2018.